Winter Nights
by A Wandering Minstrel
Summary: Fun in the snow. Blatant HarryMurphy fluff.TVVERSE


**Title:** Winter Nights  
**Characters:** Harry, Murphy, brief mention of Anna  
**Summary:** Fun in the snow.  
**Author's Notes:** Done for a person at my livejournal who requested 'Harry/Murphy snow'.

* * *

I pushed my foot into my freshly sharpened hockey skate and yanked on the laces to do it up. My skates were old, at least ten years, but they still worked fine. Well, I mean that they were perfectly sound. Whether or not I could work _with _them remained to be seen.

"Hurry up, Dresden," Murphy called, stepping out onto the ice. "I don't have all night to kick your ass."

"I find your lack of faith disturbing," I intoned, in my best Darth Vader voice. "I'm surprised you have girl skates, Murph. I woulda thought you'd be one of those chicks who commandeers hockey ones."

Murphy glided cleanly around a small patch in front of the barrier. "I have small feet. You're stalling, Dresden."

"Am not," I declared, maturely. I stood up and clumped over to the edge of the rink, my hockey stick in hand. I tossed a regular, non-magic one to her. "You're just afraid you're gonna lose."

"I am not going to be beaten by a beanpole like you," she replied. "Get your butt out here."

I said a silent prayer, put a blade on the ice and pushed off. Much to my surprise, I stayed upright. All those years of working off my teenage aggression at the local rink came back to me. Just like riding a bike. I put my other foot down and stroked off down the empty outdoor rink, balancing my stick in front of me.

"Damn," I heard Murphy mutter, before she came after me.

I did a few laps around the outside of the rink, Murphy trailing behind me. I started to go backwards, so I could watch her. She had a look of determination on her face and she skated with a catlike grace, similar to the way she can leap over fences to chase after criminals. She frowned at me.

"Show off," she called.

I slid to a stop at centre ice with a satisfying spray of snow and she dragged her pick behind her to stop in front of me. She glared up at me, but there was a mischievous challenge in her eyes that softened it. I retrieved a puck from the pocket of my coat.

"First to five?" I asked.

"Alright," she agreed.

We assumed face off position and I dropped the puck between us. She was quick and immediately tapped it away and skated around me. She sped off down the ice and I couldn't catch up with her before she shot it off into the snowbank.

"One!" she called triumphantly. She did a little victory spin while I retrieved the puck and started back down the ice.

I managed to get halfway down the rink before her stick knocked mine away and she had the puck again. I looped backwards and went after her, circling in front of her. She feinted right and went left and the puck went into the snowbank again.

"Two!" she declared.

I got the puck again and dodged around her, zooming off ahead. I slid to a stop, set-up and gave it a good slapshot. It skimmed down the ice, into the snowbank at my end.

"Oh, I didn't see that," I called to her, as she chased after it. "Was that one for me? I couldn't see."

"Lucky shot," she called back.

The battle went on with Murphy scoring two more goals before I managed three in a row. She was starting to get vicious and I had to dodge her repeated attempts to whack me with her stick. I tossed some wind down the ice. The puck zoomed away from her and back towards me of its own accord before she could score again.

"Cheater!" she yelled.

"Hey, you said nothing about not using magic," I pointed out. "I have to defend myself somehow, before you take my freakin' head off with that thing."

I headed back down the ice with the puck, but Murphy caught up with me and swiped the blade of her stick around my ankle. I fell to my knees and spun a few times. She got the puck again. I called her stick and it flew out of her hands to me. She gaped and charged me. I got to my feet and sped off, both sticks held over my head.

"You're such a baby!" she taunted. "Can't stand to be beaten by a girl."

I skated backwards again. "You're not a girl, Murphy. You're a cop."

"Give me back my stick, so I can beat you with it."

"That's not a very persuasive argument."

I turned back around, heading towards where the puck had landed. There was suddenly a weight on my back as Murphy jumped up and wrapped her arms around my neck. My weight toppled forward but I managed to stay upright. I swiped at the puck with my two sticks while Murphy put her hands over my eyes. The puck went into my goal, I could see through a crack in her fingers. I dropped the hockey sticks into order to get hold of her legs and keep her from slipping down.

"I believe you owe me twenty bucks, lieutenant," I declared.

"Betting on sports is illegal," she replied, smugly. "I could arrest you."

"Who's a baby now?"

She leaned sideways and pulled me down into a snowbank, then smoothly straddled my hips and pinned my shoulders with her hands. She was grinning good-naturedly and the snow that had started to fall glittered in her hair.

"I would like you remind you that you have blades dangerously close to parts of my body I'd like to keep," I told her.

"Hold still and you can keep them," she replied.

She lowered her head and kissed me, sending a surge of heat through my body that stopped any concept of cold I was getting from lying in the snow bank. She pulled back before I would have liked and my head followed her, attempting to catch her again.

"Surrender?" she asked, silkily.

"Mmmhmm," was all I said.

"Good."

She bent down and kissed me again. This time I put my hand behind her head to make sure she wasn't going anywhere.

* * *

It's snowing out. I can see it falling in the streetlights' light outside the window. I guess that's what made me remember. Or maybe the fact that Murphy has rolled all the sheets around herself into a little cocoon and I'm feeling cold. Maybe both. The memory is nearly five years old now, but it still makes me smile.

I close my eyes again and listen to the sound of Murphy's breathing. Distantly, I can hear Anna's loud snores down the hall. I wonder, sleepily, if maybe Anna would like to go skating. We could all go together. That would be nice. I drift off to sleep again.

You know, Murphy still owes me twenty bucks.


End file.
